#the route of ice and salt

[bookwyrminspiration]

with the conclusion of the demeter’s tale, I’d just like to toss out this queer reimagining of the trip from the 90s :)

it's quite heavy on the sexuality and the captain's character/guilt, but I found it interesting to peruse for the sake of it and it's place in latam literary history and for its assertion that queerness is not monstrous

[godzilla-reads]

Once again I am asking you to read The Route of Ice & Salt by José Luis Zárate. It’s a novella about the captain of the Demeter in Dracula, who is gay and, if you’ve read Dracula, you know how that voyage goes.

[burekstation]

wow there are at least 2 novels about the Demeter chapter...

and soon a movie

horror writers love adapting that Dracula chapter huh

[haveyoureadthisqueerbook]

[the-0ther-mother]

♡ Mid-year Book Freakout Tag ♡

No-one listens to my rants about the books i read in real life so I'll gladly subject to all of you on here to it >:)

i. the best book you've read so far: Assassin's Apprentice by Robin Hobb. (Read it once and re-read it again)

ii. the best sequel you've read so far: Act your age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert

iii. book that made you cry: The Seven Husbands Of Evelyn Hugo by Taylor Jenkins Reid. (But I'm an easy crier so there were many more)

iv. book that made you happy: Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman (re-read cuz i found the full cast audiobook)

v. biggest disappointment: BI: The Hidden Culture, History, and Science of Bisexuality by Julia Shaw. (It wasn't bad, i just expected it to be much more insightful and informative)

vi. biggest surprise: The Route Of Ice And Salt by José Luis Zárate. (Everyone should get their hands on this queer retelling of dracula from a mexican author)

vii. newest fictional crush: Jacob Wayne from Act Your Age, Eve Brown by Talia Hibbert. (Would burn down cities for him)

viii. favourite new author: Robin Hobb

ix. most anticipated new release of the second half of the year: Compound Fracture by Andrew Joseph White. (Already read an ARC and can't wait to re-read it the second it comes out)

x. books you need to read before the end of the year: The Body Keeps The Score by Bessel van der Kolk. Royal Assassin and Assassin's Quest by Robin Hobb. Titus Groan by Mervyn Peake. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas.

Literally anyone who wants to join in can go ahead <3

[geekeryisafoot]

I'm listening to the audiobook for "The Route of Ice and Salt" and all I knew going into it was it's a retelling of the Demeter's journey from Dracula, that it was queer, and that it was significant for being published in Mexico in the 90's. I wish someone had also told me how overwhelmingly horny it is. The captain literally can't go a paragraph without describing his poor sad repressed dick and how desperate he is for the strong, sweaty, sweaty men he surrounds himself with. Someone please fuck this man so he can get it out of his system and think about literally anything else. If Dracula fucks this man I think it'd legitimately improve his poor repressed horny life

Also if I have to hear the word sex for genital one more time I'm mailing a strongly worded letter to the translator. Please just use dick or cock or penis like a normal person I am begging you

[oldtvandcomics]

Happy Queer Media Monday!

Today: The Route of Ice and Salt by José Luis Zárate

Dracula Daily reached the Demeter storyline, so I’ll just try and ride that hype.

(The English cover of the novella)

The Route of Ice and Salt (original title: La Ruta del Hielo y la Sal) is a Mexican novella from 1998 that retells the story of the doomed Ship Demeter from Bram Stroker’s Dracula. The captain in this version is a closeted gay man, struggling with his sexuality and his attraction to his men, but all in all happy to be going the same route over and over again, starting in a cold climate (ice), and going down south into a hot one (salt, because of their sweat). When he is tasked to transport some boxes, strange things begin to happen on his ship, and his men disappear one by one.

This novella is special for multiple reasons: It was published by a publisher that specialized on comic books in the 1990’s, when queer people in Mexican literature didn’t really happen. The fact that it is horror written by a Mexican author is also rare, as the fantasy / science fiction / horror scene in Mexico wasn’t very big at the time, and consisted mostly of translated English authors. The Route of Ice and Salt became a cult classic for Spanish scifi readers. 

It has been translated to English, and can be bought over Amazon. There also exists a French translation. And here is the original Spanish.

Queer Media Monday is an action I started to talk about some important and/or interesting parts of our queer heritage, that people, especially young people who are only just beginning to discover the wealth of stories out there, should be aware of. Please feel free to join in on the fun and make your own posts about things you personally find important!

[lovedthestars-toofondly]

its 4am and I’m losing my mind over The Route of Ice and Salt. this isn’t going to be coherent because it’s four o’clock in the morning and I’ve been trying to write an essay all day and had to edit 300 words out of a thing that I really didn’t want to lose, but

but the way that book deals with monstrosity. the way the captain is absolutely convinced he’s monstrous. for SO LONG. and then an actual monster appears on the ship. and turns his crew, one after another, into lesser versions of itself. and the captain has been wanting - longing - dreaming - to touch the men, to touch someone, for so long and only now that they are become monsters, is he able to and the fact that they are so eager to come near him, now; for all the wrong reasons, and still he is so very glad of it the fact that this closeness, the touching him, is what allows him to grant them a chance at salvation but also that salvation is only attainable through death for all of them, including him

just. OUGH

[zielenna]

I also am a specter when I write. It is my shadow—stripped of all that matters—that speaks through ink and paper. A shipwreck’s voice, which—strangely—is not that of shredded canvas, of wood cleaved open like a wound, the echo of those who stopped screaming in the midst of the roiling waters.

José Luis Zárate, The Route of Ice and Salt

[bookwyrminspiration]

off to a fantastic start, lads

[milliebot-rambles]

January 2023 Reading Wrap Up

Feeling like I was off to a good start with my reading year!

Books read: 8 Pages read: 1,884 Average pages per day: 61

Finally picked up Route of Ice and Salt, which I funded via Indiegogo. Turns out it was not at ~all~ the book for me, but I'm still happy to cross it off my TBR.

I'm getting back into reading some books for review, which is where Pinata comes in. Again, it was not a hit for me - I may do an actual review here on why. In short, I think it would be better suited as a movie.

Spy x Family is bae.

Seanan McGuire's Wayward Children series is bae - Lost in the Moment in Found is a solid entry to the series; I only wish it were longer.

True Grit is a re-read for me, though because I read so much and my brain is soup, I'd forgotten all but the bare-bones plot. I buddy-read it with my partner as well and we were having a great time laughing together over it. I'd forgotten how funny it was, given it's a revenge tale.

In addition to getting back into review books, I'm also making a point to read more non-fiction this yere. I started with Martin Short's memoir, which was funny, and charming, and unexpectedly sad. I loved reading about his genuine friendships with other celebs though, like Eugene Levy and Tom Hanks.

Gracekeepers is another re-read for me, and part of my initiative to pick at least one book a month from my re-read pile. I've given myself a rough TBR for the year, based around wanting to make sure I re-read certain books or series. This is a sort of quietly magical tale of found family and it's fairly grim at times too. Very character-focused and I really enioyed revisiting it.

I did not count The Art of Cult of the Lamb as a book I read, or added to my page count. I just wanted to highlight it because it's wonderful - definitely worth checking out if you like video game art books.

Overall, high enjoyment of what I read this month and I'm hoping to keep up the renewed focus on making time to read!

3-3-23

[steampunk-epipen]

I keep seeing posts about Route of Ice and Salt and I’m starting to wonder why the feck I can’t buy it anywhere for some fecking reason???

[4setsofcorsets]

Guys read this book!! It’s amazing! It’s also out of print and needs to come back into print, because it physically pains me as a bookseller not to be able to offer it to people.

The Route of Ice and Salt

José Luis Zárate (Author) David Bowles (Translator)

A reimagining of Dracula's voyage to England, filled with Gothic imagery and queer desire.

It's an ordinary assignment, nothing more. The cargo? Fifty boxes filled with Transylvanian soil. The route? From Varna to Whitby. The Demeter has made many trips like this. The captain has handled dozens of crews.

He dreams familiar dreams: to taste the salt on the skin of his men, to run his hands across their chests. He longs for the warmth of a lover he cannot have, fantasizes about flesh and frenzied embraces. All this he's done before, it's routine, a constant, like the tides.

Yet there's something different, something wrong. There are odd nightmares, unsettling omens and fear. For there is something in the air, something in the night, someone stalking the ship.

The cult vampire novella by Mexican author José Luis Zárate is available for the first time in English. Translated by David Bowles and with an accompanying essay by noted horror author Poppy Z. Brite, it reveals an unknown corner of Latin American literature.

(Clicking the affiliate link above goes to supporting MQH's research fund)

[gellavonhamster]

European followers: can anyone recommend a good online bookshop? I try to avoid online shopping as much as possible, but sometimes I need one or another book that is highly unlikely to be available where I live. Something, you know, that doesn't charge an arm and a leg for delivery.

[artigas]

it's so wild to me that folks looked at renfield and the last voyage of the demeter and came to the bananas conclusion that the common denominator between those two flops is the vampires. like, there are people on guillermo de la cruz's interest writing think pieces about how those movies doing badly means that we don't want vampire content anymore. beloved, we love vampire content! but i would rather lick rust than subject myself to awkwafina playing a cop. on the other hand, the last voyage committed its own crimes: it forgot that dracula fucks. unfortunately, they, too, deserve to perish.

[jesslovesboats]

Hello friends, I am back with more reading recommendations for your agonies! Next up we have the long awaited and much requested Sad Boat Fiction list. As with all of my lists, this is NOT exhaustive and there WILL be great books left off, and also you may or may not like these books! I only rec things that I've personally enjoyed or that come highly recommended by trusted friends, but taste in books is incredibly subjective, especially with fiction. If I missed your favorite, please add it in the comments or drop it in my DMs!

Now that I'm feeling more settled in my new job, I will hopefully have a lot more time to make book lists and do more virtual Readers' Advisory. I have lists in the works for women in polar exploration and companion reads for the HBO War series, but if there's something else you would love to see, please send me a message!

Classics of the Genre

At the Mountains of Madness by H.P. Lovecraft

The Terror by Dan Simmons

Moby Dick by Herman Melville

Dark Matter by Michelle Paver

Media Tie-Ins

Who Goes There? (Filmed as The Thing) by John W. Campbell, Jr.

The North Water by Ian McGuire

Cold Skin by Alfred Sánchez Piñol

The Terror by Dan Simmons

Graphic Novels

Whiteout by Greg Rucka

How to Survive in the North by Luke Healy

The Worst Journey in the World- The Graphic Novel Volume 1: Making Our Easting Down adapted by Sarah Airriess from the book by Apsley Cherry-Garrard*

*this is only fiction in the broadest possible sense of the term, but there is a shiny new American version of this book coming out with a gorgeous new cover and you should pre-order it immediately

Science Fiction

The Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula K. LeGuin

Antarctica by Kim Stanley Robinson

Romance

Under a Pole Star by Stef Penney

The Ministry of Time by Kaliane Bradley

My Last Continent by Midge Raymond

Inspired by the Terra Nova Expedition

The Worst Journey in the World- The Graphic Novel Volume 1: Making Our Easting Down adapted by Sarah Airriess from the book by Apsley Cherry-Garrard*

The Birthday Boys by Beryl Bainbridge

Terra Nova: A Play by Ted Tally

Antarctic Navigation by Elizabeth Arthur

*this is only fiction in the broadest possible sense of the term, but there is a shiny new American version of this book coming out with a gorgeous new cover and you should pre-order it immediately

Inspired by the Franklin Expedition

The Rifles by William T. Vollmann

Minds of Winter by Ed O'Loughlin

Solomon Gursky Was Here by Mordecai Richler

On the Proper Use of Stars by Dominique Fortier

Literary Fiction

The Voyage of the Narwhal by Andrea Barrett

Migrations by Charlotte McConaghy

We, The Drowned by Carsten Jensen

Inspired by the Classics

The Route of Ice and Salt by José Luis Zárate

Ahab's Wife by Sena Jeter Naslund

Modern Day Antarctica

How the Penguins Saved Veronica by Hazel Prior

South Pole Station by Ashley Shelby

Where'd You Go, Bernadette by Maria Semple

Polar and Nautical Horror

Where the Dead Wait by Ally Wilkes

Dark Matter by Michelle Paver

Cold Earth by Sarah Moss

The Deep by Nick Cutter

All the White Spaces by Ally Wilkes

Dark Water by Elizabeth Lowry

The Deep by Alma Katsu

Happy reading!